Interesting that there's no talk yet of any kind of 'manifesto', message or whatever. Beeb is saying "The so-called Islamic State group has said it was behind the attack", but those wankers would probably take credit for blowing up the Hindenburg and sinking the Titanic if you asked them.

Interesting that there's no talk yet of any kind of 'manifesto', message or whatever. Beeb is saying "The so-called Islamic State group has said it was behind the attack", but those wankers would probably take credit for blowing up the Hindenburg and sinking the Titanic if you asked them.

If you haven't grasped their message by now... kill the unbelievers and apostates in the name of Allah, wherever they are by whatever means. It's not very complex and hardly needs restating every time. It's clearly an appealing message for people with 7th century mindsets living in 21st century societies, who get to end their personal history of misery and failure AND get their name all over the Western media as well as the IS hall of fame.

Lol, thanks for that, because until now I'd thought they were all about peace, love and universal brotherhood.

What I meant was, you now have a situation whereby some nutter with unresolved childhood bullying issues watches some crazy videos on the internet and thinks "I'll have a go at that and then my life, or at least my death, will finally mean something." Then he goes and does it, whatever it is, and someone in ISIS (or claiming to represent them, anyway) then says "Oh yeah, that was us." In contrast to an older model of jihadi terrorism, with organized cells actually under the command of leaders in Pakistan.

What I meant was, you now have a situation whereby some nutter with unresolved childhood bullying issues watches some crazy videos on the internet and thinks "I'll have a go at that and then my life, or at least my death, will finally mean something."

Lol, thanks for that, because until now I'd thought they were all about peace, love and universal brotherhood.

What I meant was, you now have a situation whereby some nutter with unresolved childhood bullying issues watches some crazy videos on the internet and thinks "I'll have a go at that and then my life, or at least my death, will finally mean something." Then he goes and does it, whatever it is, and someone in ISIS then says "Oh yeah, that was us." In contrast to an older model of jihadi terrorism, with organized cells actually under the command of leaders in Pakistan.

That's all they need to do though. Effect verifies cause. We used to do the same. That's what the cenotaph is, a big post hoc justification for who knows what crazy evilry happened on the Western Front with flamethrowers and clubs.

Well yeah, I think there's a continuum between the non-ideological mass killer and "proper" (organized, planned, ideological) terrorism. Or at least, a hard distinction between the two is a false dichotomy.

Well yeah, I think there's a continuum between the non-ideological mass killer and "proper" (organized, planned, ideological) terrorism. Or at least, a hard distinction between the two is a false dichotomy.

Yep, and that's always been true - ideology is all too often taken at face value as a simplistic substitute for the complex set of factors that would result in someone doing something like this.

(Not to mention the broader issue of the prevalence of Ba'athists among Isis top brass)

At the moment it seems that this "lone wolf" wasn't so "lone": they rarely are, but we'll see how it plays out.

Last bracketed point Baboon made is a very important one, actually, for a lot of complex but crucial reasons.

I still consider ideology a more important factor than mental health, though the latter cannot be disregarded. But it is also not the crucial explanation and certainly not a way to absolve motivations or motivators. That would be the comforting conclusion.

To reiterate the not-mutually-exclusive point I made above, I got really sick and tired of Facebook chat in the aftermath of the Jo Cox murder that was polarized between "Thomas Mair isn't a terrorist, he's mentally ill" and "Thomas Mair isn't mentally ill, he's a terrorist". As if being one precluded being the other. Ridiculous.